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Happy Valicetine's Day 2022!
Feb. 14th, 2022 11:38 pmIt's been pretty quiet for me -- and not just because we were snowed in a bit (apparently we got about EIGHT inches of snow in the end!). But I did wear my long-sleeved Valice shirt Mom made, me, and I did post up my Valicetines -- you can see them here! And I pretty much got through all my to-dos as well --
1.Either write some more on "Learn To Love Again" or do a free writing Valice thing: Check, though the latter ended up being more of a “Valicer” thing – I did a quick outline of the most common mental scenario I have for a Smiler/Victor/Alice poly modern AU, which is all three of them at college, with Smiler having set up a site online with their hypnosis stuff that Victor stumbles upon and starts watching before meeting them. Or Alice, actually – what happens is he meets Alice first, who tells him that it’s okay if he likes that stuff; then Smiler ends up a classmate in one of her classes, she encourages Victor to talk to them, and things progress from there. It’s a fairly low-drama mental scenario, which is how I like it – let’s just have fun, snuggly, possibly-kinky times please!
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and watch those two darn Sims videos in the Watch Later: Check! Got those two WL videos cleared, w00 – plus a little bit of a bonus!
A) Started with a pair of Plumbellas – the one from my WL, and one uploaded today –
I. “styling clothes I hate in The Sims 4” – using items she dislikes from a style standpoint and trying to make them look good in Sims 4 CAS with other items! This included a pair of simple shorts with a belt she didn’t like (felt like they were too tight in the butt; ended up covering them with a chunky hoodie and pairing with sneaks); a blouse with a VERY Cats & Dogs sweater vest over it (went with the purple swatch and just went bold with a blue skirt that matched one of the patches and some fun socks and whatnot); the Vampires outfit with the ruffled cravat (she struggled with this one, eventually settling on a blue/teal swatch, matching high heels, and a long hair with short straight bangs to try and cover up the ruffles, or at least make them look better); a Journey To Batuu outfit that – is kind of a sack dress over a long-sleeve shirt and pants with wrapped calves? (I don’t know how to describe it – Plumbella picked one of the plainer swatches, slapped on some gloves and a hat, and called it a winter gardening outfit); and a random top she chose – one of those that’s tighter-fitted at the top (with a choker collar) then at the bottom (where it overhangs skirts and such, which is the bit she doesn’t like – she ended up going for a “by the pool” look with some floral shorts and flip-flops). I ended up liking almost all of them at least a little – nothing can make me fond of Batuu, but the Vampire outfit was one I already kinda liked, and I like the bold look she went for with the Cats & Dogs sweater vest. Style is subjective, and sometimes you just gotta run with the bright colors. :)
II. “i am burnt out on The Sims 4” – Plumbella admits that she’s feeling burnt out when it comes to video ideas for The Sims 4 – but rather than letting that get her down, she’s trying to find a way to make it fun again, asking us for ideas and forcing herself out of a rut. I jokingly suggested “play the game without using three-times speed unless all Sims are asleep/at work,” since she’s admitted in previous videos she tends to speed through Sims lives whenever she can. XD But yeah, I totally get feeling like you’re in a rut with the game – it’s why I’ve put my “Newcrest Adventures” save file on hiatus, and why I’m trying to get my Sims to do more stuff in the Chill Save. And why I will EVENTUALLY get off my butt and set up my challenge save. XD Smiler at least is good for trying to play a Sim who’s more extroverted and into joining organizations than I am. . .
B) Then it was over to the Subs for some James Turner and a Sims 4 challenge video – or, rather, a Scenario video, as James decided to do the “Making Money” scenario and see how fast he can get his sim to $1,000,000! He started with a self Sim who was a Kleptomaniac, Romantic, and a Perfectionist, with a Journey to Batuu aspiration just so he can fill his needs up a bit every time he travels! And he started in Glimmerbrook for “Copypasto” reasons – become a spellcaster and clone all the things! Specifically, the money fruit you get when you buy the money tree from the reward store. . . However, this took longer than he was expecting, mostly because it took him quite a while to actually get the “Copypasto” spell! He dueled random Sims for knowledge and kissed up to a very reluctant Simeon Silversweater for at least a week before getting it – though, props to him, he DID get the “inheritance” phone call mid-duel, and for ONCE picked the correct option to get $2,500 with no conditions (nearly smacking poor Deli in the face when he cheered himself after doing so XD). After that, he did some aspiration stuff (namely collecting stuff around the various worlds) to get enough points to afford a money fruit, built himself a little shack on his Glimmerbrook lot, and then set about copying, pasting, and planting! He ended up with about sixty-six trees on his property, damn – and really, only quit copying and pasting at that point because he’d picked up a curse that caused his magic to sometimes have random effects (like duplicating a broken shower instead of repairing it). He got a gardener to help with the tending, then it was just a matter of waiting until everything was grown and harvestable! A couple days’ worth of harvests at the end, and the scenario was complete – having taken sixteen in-game days, and two and a half real-life hours. So, uh, yeah, definitely NOT the fastest way to make a million in the game. XD But it was a lot of fun to watch, at least!
C) Then, this evening, we had a return to Anna_Chess’s channel, for another episode of her and Call Me Kevin playing co-op Sims 4! Party Animal (Kevin) reluctantly returned to living with Albert Einstein (Anna) in her apartment hovel, with the two toddlers and the cat. A plan was soon hatched – host a costume party and try to dump the toddlers off on the guests! Kevin sold the fridge and the stove to make it happen, and – it actually worked out perfectly. Mostly because Geoffrey Landgraab attended, dressed as a robot, and was still good enough friends with Alberta to accept an offer to move in! As per Kevin, they moved in Geoffrey and Nancy, then quietly moved out (on one of the toddler’s birthdays!) to freedom – in STRANGERVILLE, of all places. Kevin got them a tiny home in the caravan lot, with only one bed. That he sold the minute he woke up and went to work so Alberta couldn’t sleep anywhere. He eventually relented and got them coffins out in the yard (which were handy to hide in when Nancy suddenly showed up for a visit), and finally did ACTUAL beds in the form of bunk beds (Alberta immediately calling top bunk). They had a few strange visitors to welcome them to the neighborhood, but never actually progressed THAT storyline – instead, Party Animal did what he did best – throw constant parties! During which Alberta was almost constantly naked. Almost as if someone other than Anna was telling her to get naked on the regular. XD Alberta also almost killed herself at Party Animal’s birthday party by burning a grilled cheese – fortunately she was able to put herself out, which was good, as Party Animal was trying to save his extinguisher for a special occasion. XD After all this, Kevin decided they needed to buy themselves a present, and dug a giant moat around the property, complete with crocodiles! Named “Anna’s Baby,” of course. XD Anna protested the fact that this meant that they and the guests from their latest party were trapped forever in the house, so Kevin built a second floor for him and Anna and locked the guests onto the lower floor. Everyone was genuinely surprised he didn’t build a creepy basement – including the game, which crashed, ending the episode. XD Ah, pure chaotic nonsense from Kevin and Anna – hopefully this will lead to a part three sooner rather than later!
D) Then it was over to the Subs to watch Call Me Kevin’s latest video – Minecraft, but the floor is lava. LITERALLY. Kevin found a mod that, after a starter period where you’re allowed to search the world for supplies, and a grace period where you’re still allowed to search the world, but the borders are slowly shrinking to surround your spawn, lava just starts spewing upwards, covering each level of the world with shocking speed. Your goal – survive! In Kevin’s case, this meant figuring out a way to speed-run building a portal to the Nether, where the lava rules didn’t apply. His first attempt started pretty well – he spawned near a village and was able to rob them of all the things (namely food and a bed), found a bunch of iron in a nearby ravine, got gravel for flint and steel without even thinking about it. . .but then things started going wrong when he accidentally got trapped in a cave when the shrinking borders cut off his entrance, forcing him to dig up into the ocean to escape. Then the borders cut off the stairs to the little platform he built to avoid the lava and he had to build new ones out of dirt. Then he kept encountering enemies on his way to harvest the lava to create obsidian in his little mold on the platform. . .including a fateful zombie on his stairs that mean he got drowned in the lava and died. :( Ah well. . .time for round two, which was – somewhat less blessed. No village, no goodies – just lots of caves with VERY LITTLE iron. Lots of water, though – and he made a start on the portal form early this time, getting lava from other sources and setting up an infinite water fountain on top a little hill, along with a bed (made by killing sheep) and his crafting supplies. THIS time he was able to get everything he needed to make the portal in time to escape the lava – though he had to kill a shitton of zombies who apparently wanted the portal for themselves! And one did get through after him – but the important thing, he made it safely to the Nether! Yaaay! XD Feels a bit like a twisted take on a GrayStillPlays episode, really. . .
E) Speaking of! Gray’s gift to us this Valentine’s Day was Bio Inc. Redemption – a game where you can choose to kill X-Ray people in a variety of terrible ways. I mean, you can choose to HELP them too, but – this is Gray. And Gray’s death of choice this time? CONSTIPATION! As in, he chose a guy, gave him an entire paragraph for a name about how he feels so clogged up, please kill him Gray, kept him healthy for the better part of a year as he built up bio points, then unlocked every risk factor he could, gave him a few minor diseases to disguise the constipation when it showed up, then just piled on incompetent doctors, doctors on strike, fear of doctors, bad treatments, and surgical errors as the guy got super obese, addicted to junk food, developed chronic stress, and finally went into systems failure because he could not poop. (And when he did, it was diarrhea, which, fantastic.) Turns out it was circulatory system failure that got him after the digestive system failed – I guess his heart figured it wasn’t worth going on. Dark, disturbing, and oh so amusing with evil genius Gray in charge. XD
3. Play Sims 4 and get Smiler their skills to get into Foxbury, and maybe see about introducing them to Victor and Alice: Check! Smiler had another day out and about – first, I sent them to Forgotten Hollow, to see Vlad and get a little more vampire training. They also met Lilith Vatore, though she walked away after just a few interactions, meh. However, more importantly, there were chess tables in the village square, so I had Smiler play chess to get more Logic skill – important for Foxbury! They also got some wolfsbane and Sixam mosquito trap pods because those were ready to be harvested in the world (the plasma fruit trees, annoyingly, not so much). And they found a capsule on the little peninsula that juts out from the main area, and fed on one Tristen McMillan, who happens to be just Smiler’s blood type! AKA, “Divine Drink” moodlet – need to keep this one close!
From there, I decided to risk sending Smiler to Magnolia Blossom Park in Willow Creek, in the hopes that Victor or Alice might show up there naturally – fortunately, it was a cloudy spring day, and so Smiler never started roasting. I was able to get them another point of Logic skill at the chess tables there; sent them skating at the local pop-up rink for a bit; had them look for frogs (getting a rare Eggplant Whirl and an uncommon Surfer Leaf frog) and do some fishing (caught a chiclid that later became a plasma pack); and detect some personalities and feed on a woman named Presley. All good activities, but no Victor and Alice! So, in the end, I had Smiler just turn up at their house and knock. XD They let them in, and Smiler proceeded to have some slightly-awkward conversations with them – a few interactions didn’t land, and Alice did that annoying thing where Erratic Sims just randomly yell at people (I had to stop Smiler from yelling at her earlier). But they’re both in the green on the relationship bar, and at least Smiler KNOWS them now – and thinks they’re both attractive, so. . . XD (So tempted to go into their preferences and see if I can at least tweak this up to Very Attractive, but I dunno what to do there XD)
Anyway, after that, finally sent Smiler back home, where as per their whims I bought a radio (one of my bits of FO4 CC, in fact), then added a shower to the bathroom and cleaned out their inventory by putting their bugs, Sulani treasures, San MyShuno poster, the “Ol’ Gabby” MySim trophy that was in the capsule, and the new Hypnofrog I got by breeding their other two frogs together out for display. I then had them apply for the two scholarships they were apparently most sure to get (Education For All and Britechester Resident) before having them study more Vampire Lore skill, finally unlocking Encyclopedia Vampirica Volume 2. They got up to Vampire Lore 7 from reading, and then a final Dark Mediation pushed them over the edge into Prime vampire territory early Thursday morning! They now have the Mesmerize power, have upgraded to Occult Master to use less energy, and have the Fitful Sleep weakness because – well. Dark Mediation is ALWAYS better because it gets you vamp XP! *nods* So that’s where Smiler’s been left for the moment – now, once the patch and the new pack are out and my mods have been appropriately updated, we’ll pick up with them sparring with some vampires, making friends with Victor and Alice, and hopefully getting into Foxbury!
4. Work on getting the Victor Luvs Alice tumblr drafts sorted for the rest of the week: I’m gonna say half-check – I wanted to get more done, but between clearing out all the YouTube, getting everything else done, getting distracted catching up on tumblr tags and the like, and the first post of the first Smiler Always update being extra long because I had to explain Smiler’s personality and suchlike (exposition dump!), I was only able to draft out the text OF said first post for Wednesday. Gotta prioritize at least getting the second half done tomorrow!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, but NOT back with Oxventure just yet. Instead, I took on a different OXBox video that just posted today – “Hitman 3 Valentine’s Day Contracts! ROMANTIC AGENT 47 HELPS CUPID!” Yes, Mike, Jane, and Andy did their first Hitman 3 stream of 2022 today, as there were some new romance-themed contracts out to try! I woke up too late to see it live (it actually wrapped up while I was eating breakfast and getting dressed and whatnot), but I really wanted to watch it because Hitman content is one of the things I love from OXBox, so I figured – hour and a half livestream, I can watch that with my workouts for a bit, right? And so that is what I have done. XD And best of all, Mike is on the controls. XD Though so far he hasn’t gone FULL Mike – he’s trying to do the first contract, which is eliminating those who stand in the way of the canoodling couple in Darthmoor, the right way. He has to eliminate a jealous ex-boyfriend, a hired killer, and Mr. Fernsby, the butler who scolds them for socializing – the ex, Clarke, can be taken out any way, but it was recommended by the client that the killer, Otto Lee, be killed in some sort of “something falls on them” accident, and Fernsby drowned. But! There’s an added twist – Mike cannot be recorded by any security cameras (not an issue, happily, as the mansion doesn’t have any), and he cannot pacify anyone. So that means this mission might have a high body count. So far, though, there’s only been one non-target kill – an unfortunate member of staff lured into the changing room so Mike could have his uniform. He’s also taken out two out of the three targets – Otto Lee, fortunately, passes under a chandelier on the second floor as part of his routine, so Mike just had to get his gun out at the right moment and shoot it down over him. And Clarke? He was in the staff room chilling, so Mike ended up just wanging a screwdriver into his head through an open door out of sight and then hiding in a nearby cupboard until the heat died down. XD The tough one is proving to be Fernsby – as he can’t be pacified and then dragged into a lake, the only shot at drowning him is to get him to drink something with emetic poison and then shove his head into a toilet. But Fernsby doesn’t have drinking anything as part of his regular routine. . .the livestream chat apparently said that if you poison a certain teacup in the staff room and then summon him via the bell, he WILL drink it. The problem is, even after the murder, there’s plenty of people in there, and Mike is having no luck drawing them out. . .we’ll have to see where that goes tomorrow!
Additionally:
-->Answered my FF.net friend’s PM, yay – and made sure to update their preferred online name in my gift fic doc, as they’ve actually changed it! (Well, they changed it on AO3 to match their nonbinary status – the FF.net one hasn’t changed because they literally only use that account to PM me.) So yeah, they go by Ace_of_Tales now – good to know!
Okay, maybe it hasn't been THAT quiet. XD But I got through all the videos and whatnot I wanted to watch, and I was at least SOMEWHAT productive on tumblr drafts, so that's a start. And now it's time to head to bed, as it's back to work tomorrow -- at least it's only one full day before I get some more extra time off! :p Night all!
1.
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs and watch those two darn Sims videos in the Watch Later: Check! Got those two WL videos cleared, w00 – plus a little bit of a bonus!
A) Started with a pair of Plumbellas – the one from my WL, and one uploaded today –
I. “styling clothes I hate in The Sims 4” – using items she dislikes from a style standpoint and trying to make them look good in Sims 4 CAS with other items! This included a pair of simple shorts with a belt she didn’t like (felt like they were too tight in the butt; ended up covering them with a chunky hoodie and pairing with sneaks); a blouse with a VERY Cats & Dogs sweater vest over it (went with the purple swatch and just went bold with a blue skirt that matched one of the patches and some fun socks and whatnot); the Vampires outfit with the ruffled cravat (she struggled with this one, eventually settling on a blue/teal swatch, matching high heels, and a long hair with short straight bangs to try and cover up the ruffles, or at least make them look better); a Journey To Batuu outfit that – is kind of a sack dress over a long-sleeve shirt and pants with wrapped calves? (I don’t know how to describe it – Plumbella picked one of the plainer swatches, slapped on some gloves and a hat, and called it a winter gardening outfit); and a random top she chose – one of those that’s tighter-fitted at the top (with a choker collar) then at the bottom (where it overhangs skirts and such, which is the bit she doesn’t like – she ended up going for a “by the pool” look with some floral shorts and flip-flops). I ended up liking almost all of them at least a little – nothing can make me fond of Batuu, but the Vampire outfit was one I already kinda liked, and I like the bold look she went for with the Cats & Dogs sweater vest. Style is subjective, and sometimes you just gotta run with the bright colors. :)
II. “i am burnt out on The Sims 4” – Plumbella admits that she’s feeling burnt out when it comes to video ideas for The Sims 4 – but rather than letting that get her down, she’s trying to find a way to make it fun again, asking us for ideas and forcing herself out of a rut. I jokingly suggested “play the game without using three-times speed unless all Sims are asleep/at work,” since she’s admitted in previous videos she tends to speed through Sims lives whenever she can. XD But yeah, I totally get feeling like you’re in a rut with the game – it’s why I’ve put my “Newcrest Adventures” save file on hiatus, and why I’m trying to get my Sims to do more stuff in the Chill Save. And why I will EVENTUALLY get off my butt and set up my challenge save. XD Smiler at least is good for trying to play a Sim who’s more extroverted and into joining organizations than I am. . .
B) Then it was over to the Subs for some James Turner and a Sims 4 challenge video – or, rather, a Scenario video, as James decided to do the “Making Money” scenario and see how fast he can get his sim to $1,000,000! He started with a self Sim who was a Kleptomaniac, Romantic, and a Perfectionist, with a Journey to Batuu aspiration just so he can fill his needs up a bit every time he travels! And he started in Glimmerbrook for “Copypasto” reasons – become a spellcaster and clone all the things! Specifically, the money fruit you get when you buy the money tree from the reward store. . . However, this took longer than he was expecting, mostly because it took him quite a while to actually get the “Copypasto” spell! He dueled random Sims for knowledge and kissed up to a very reluctant Simeon Silversweater for at least a week before getting it – though, props to him, he DID get the “inheritance” phone call mid-duel, and for ONCE picked the correct option to get $2,500 with no conditions (nearly smacking poor Deli in the face when he cheered himself after doing so XD). After that, he did some aspiration stuff (namely collecting stuff around the various worlds) to get enough points to afford a money fruit, built himself a little shack on his Glimmerbrook lot, and then set about copying, pasting, and planting! He ended up with about sixty-six trees on his property, damn – and really, only quit copying and pasting at that point because he’d picked up a curse that caused his magic to sometimes have random effects (like duplicating a broken shower instead of repairing it). He got a gardener to help with the tending, then it was just a matter of waiting until everything was grown and harvestable! A couple days’ worth of harvests at the end, and the scenario was complete – having taken sixteen in-game days, and two and a half real-life hours. So, uh, yeah, definitely NOT the fastest way to make a million in the game. XD But it was a lot of fun to watch, at least!
C) Then, this evening, we had a return to Anna_Chess’s channel, for another episode of her and Call Me Kevin playing co-op Sims 4! Party Animal (Kevin) reluctantly returned to living with Albert Einstein (Anna) in her apartment hovel, with the two toddlers and the cat. A plan was soon hatched – host a costume party and try to dump the toddlers off on the guests! Kevin sold the fridge and the stove to make it happen, and – it actually worked out perfectly. Mostly because Geoffrey Landgraab attended, dressed as a robot, and was still good enough friends with Alberta to accept an offer to move in! As per Kevin, they moved in Geoffrey and Nancy, then quietly moved out (on one of the toddler’s birthdays!) to freedom – in STRANGERVILLE, of all places. Kevin got them a tiny home in the caravan lot, with only one bed. That he sold the minute he woke up and went to work so Alberta couldn’t sleep anywhere. He eventually relented and got them coffins out in the yard (which were handy to hide in when Nancy suddenly showed up for a visit), and finally did ACTUAL beds in the form of bunk beds (Alberta immediately calling top bunk). They had a few strange visitors to welcome them to the neighborhood, but never actually progressed THAT storyline – instead, Party Animal did what he did best – throw constant parties! During which Alberta was almost constantly naked. Almost as if someone other than Anna was telling her to get naked on the regular. XD Alberta also almost killed herself at Party Animal’s birthday party by burning a grilled cheese – fortunately she was able to put herself out, which was good, as Party Animal was trying to save his extinguisher for a special occasion. XD After all this, Kevin decided they needed to buy themselves a present, and dug a giant moat around the property, complete with crocodiles! Named “Anna’s Baby,” of course. XD Anna protested the fact that this meant that they and the guests from their latest party were trapped forever in the house, so Kevin built a second floor for him and Anna and locked the guests onto the lower floor. Everyone was genuinely surprised he didn’t build a creepy basement – including the game, which crashed, ending the episode. XD Ah, pure chaotic nonsense from Kevin and Anna – hopefully this will lead to a part three sooner rather than later!
D) Then it was over to the Subs to watch Call Me Kevin’s latest video – Minecraft, but the floor is lava. LITERALLY. Kevin found a mod that, after a starter period where you’re allowed to search the world for supplies, and a grace period where you’re still allowed to search the world, but the borders are slowly shrinking to surround your spawn, lava just starts spewing upwards, covering each level of the world with shocking speed. Your goal – survive! In Kevin’s case, this meant figuring out a way to speed-run building a portal to the Nether, where the lava rules didn’t apply. His first attempt started pretty well – he spawned near a village and was able to rob them of all the things (namely food and a bed), found a bunch of iron in a nearby ravine, got gravel for flint and steel without even thinking about it. . .but then things started going wrong when he accidentally got trapped in a cave when the shrinking borders cut off his entrance, forcing him to dig up into the ocean to escape. Then the borders cut off the stairs to the little platform he built to avoid the lava and he had to build new ones out of dirt. Then he kept encountering enemies on his way to harvest the lava to create obsidian in his little mold on the platform. . .including a fateful zombie on his stairs that mean he got drowned in the lava and died. :( Ah well. . .time for round two, which was – somewhat less blessed. No village, no goodies – just lots of caves with VERY LITTLE iron. Lots of water, though – and he made a start on the portal form early this time, getting lava from other sources and setting up an infinite water fountain on top a little hill, along with a bed (made by killing sheep) and his crafting supplies. THIS time he was able to get everything he needed to make the portal in time to escape the lava – though he had to kill a shitton of zombies who apparently wanted the portal for themselves! And one did get through after him – but the important thing, he made it safely to the Nether! Yaaay! XD Feels a bit like a twisted take on a GrayStillPlays episode, really. . .
E) Speaking of! Gray’s gift to us this Valentine’s Day was Bio Inc. Redemption – a game where you can choose to kill X-Ray people in a variety of terrible ways. I mean, you can choose to HELP them too, but – this is Gray. And Gray’s death of choice this time? CONSTIPATION! As in, he chose a guy, gave him an entire paragraph for a name about how he feels so clogged up, please kill him Gray, kept him healthy for the better part of a year as he built up bio points, then unlocked every risk factor he could, gave him a few minor diseases to disguise the constipation when it showed up, then just piled on incompetent doctors, doctors on strike, fear of doctors, bad treatments, and surgical errors as the guy got super obese, addicted to junk food, developed chronic stress, and finally went into systems failure because he could not poop. (And when he did, it was diarrhea, which, fantastic.) Turns out it was circulatory system failure that got him after the digestive system failed – I guess his heart figured it wasn’t worth going on. Dark, disturbing, and oh so amusing with evil genius Gray in charge. XD
3. Play Sims 4 and get Smiler their skills to get into Foxbury, and maybe see about introducing them to Victor and Alice: Check! Smiler had another day out and about – first, I sent them to Forgotten Hollow, to see Vlad and get a little more vampire training. They also met Lilith Vatore, though she walked away after just a few interactions, meh. However, more importantly, there were chess tables in the village square, so I had Smiler play chess to get more Logic skill – important for Foxbury! They also got some wolfsbane and Sixam mosquito trap pods because those were ready to be harvested in the world (the plasma fruit trees, annoyingly, not so much). And they found a capsule on the little peninsula that juts out from the main area, and fed on one Tristen McMillan, who happens to be just Smiler’s blood type! AKA, “Divine Drink” moodlet – need to keep this one close!
From there, I decided to risk sending Smiler to Magnolia Blossom Park in Willow Creek, in the hopes that Victor or Alice might show up there naturally – fortunately, it was a cloudy spring day, and so Smiler never started roasting. I was able to get them another point of Logic skill at the chess tables there; sent them skating at the local pop-up rink for a bit; had them look for frogs (getting a rare Eggplant Whirl and an uncommon Surfer Leaf frog) and do some fishing (caught a chiclid that later became a plasma pack); and detect some personalities and feed on a woman named Presley. All good activities, but no Victor and Alice! So, in the end, I had Smiler just turn up at their house and knock. XD They let them in, and Smiler proceeded to have some slightly-awkward conversations with them – a few interactions didn’t land, and Alice did that annoying thing where Erratic Sims just randomly yell at people (I had to stop Smiler from yelling at her earlier). But they’re both in the green on the relationship bar, and at least Smiler KNOWS them now – and thinks they’re both attractive, so. . . XD (So tempted to go into their preferences and see if I can at least tweak this up to Very Attractive, but I dunno what to do there XD)
Anyway, after that, finally sent Smiler back home, where as per their whims I bought a radio (one of my bits of FO4 CC, in fact), then added a shower to the bathroom and cleaned out their inventory by putting their bugs, Sulani treasures, San MyShuno poster, the “Ol’ Gabby” MySim trophy that was in the capsule, and the new Hypnofrog I got by breeding their other two frogs together out for display. I then had them apply for the two scholarships they were apparently most sure to get (Education For All and Britechester Resident) before having them study more Vampire Lore skill, finally unlocking Encyclopedia Vampirica Volume 2. They got up to Vampire Lore 7 from reading, and then a final Dark Mediation pushed them over the edge into Prime vampire territory early Thursday morning! They now have the Mesmerize power, have upgraded to Occult Master to use less energy, and have the Fitful Sleep weakness because – well. Dark Mediation is ALWAYS better because it gets you vamp XP! *nods* So that’s where Smiler’s been left for the moment – now, once the patch and the new pack are out and my mods have been appropriately updated, we’ll pick up with them sparring with some vampires, making friends with Victor and Alice, and hopefully getting into Foxbury!
4. Work on getting the Victor Luvs Alice tumblr drafts sorted for the rest of the week: I’m gonna say half-check – I wanted to get more done, but between clearing out all the YouTube, getting everything else done, getting distracted catching up on tumblr tags and the like, and the first post of the first Smiler Always update being extra long because I had to explain Smiler’s personality and suchlike (exposition dump!), I was only able to draft out the text OF said first post for Wednesday. Gotta prioritize at least getting the second half done tomorrow!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, but NOT back with Oxventure just yet. Instead, I took on a different OXBox video that just posted today – “Hitman 3 Valentine’s Day Contracts! ROMANTIC AGENT 47 HELPS CUPID!” Yes, Mike, Jane, and Andy did their first Hitman 3 stream of 2022 today, as there were some new romance-themed contracts out to try! I woke up too late to see it live (it actually wrapped up while I was eating breakfast and getting dressed and whatnot), but I really wanted to watch it because Hitman content is one of the things I love from OXBox, so I figured – hour and a half livestream, I can watch that with my workouts for a bit, right? And so that is what I have done. XD And best of all, Mike is on the controls. XD Though so far he hasn’t gone FULL Mike – he’s trying to do the first contract, which is eliminating those who stand in the way of the canoodling couple in Darthmoor, the right way. He has to eliminate a jealous ex-boyfriend, a hired killer, and Mr. Fernsby, the butler who scolds them for socializing – the ex, Clarke, can be taken out any way, but it was recommended by the client that the killer, Otto Lee, be killed in some sort of “something falls on them” accident, and Fernsby drowned. But! There’s an added twist – Mike cannot be recorded by any security cameras (not an issue, happily, as the mansion doesn’t have any), and he cannot pacify anyone. So that means this mission might have a high body count. So far, though, there’s only been one non-target kill – an unfortunate member of staff lured into the changing room so Mike could have his uniform. He’s also taken out two out of the three targets – Otto Lee, fortunately, passes under a chandelier on the second floor as part of his routine, so Mike just had to get his gun out at the right moment and shoot it down over him. And Clarke? He was in the staff room chilling, so Mike ended up just wanging a screwdriver into his head through an open door out of sight and then hiding in a nearby cupboard until the heat died down. XD The tough one is proving to be Fernsby – as he can’t be pacified and then dragged into a lake, the only shot at drowning him is to get him to drink something with emetic poison and then shove his head into a toilet. But Fernsby doesn’t have drinking anything as part of his regular routine. . .the livestream chat apparently said that if you poison a certain teacup in the staff room and then summon him via the bell, he WILL drink it. The problem is, even after the murder, there’s plenty of people in there, and Mike is having no luck drawing them out. . .we’ll have to see where that goes tomorrow!
Additionally:
-->Answered my FF.net friend’s PM, yay – and made sure to update their preferred online name in my gift fic doc, as they’ve actually changed it! (Well, they changed it on AO3 to match their nonbinary status – the FF.net one hasn’t changed because they literally only use that account to PM me.) So yeah, they go by Ace_of_Tales now – good to know!
Okay, maybe it hasn't been THAT quiet. XD But I got through all the videos and whatnot I wanted to watch, and I was at least SOMEWHAT productive on tumblr drafts, so that's a start. And now it's time to head to bed, as it's back to work tomorrow -- at least it's only one full day before I get some more extra time off! :p Night all!
